Dinner in a Snap!

I was itching to have something quick for dinner and did not want to work really hard at it. When at Safeway, I noticed that they have their own version of "Stouffer's" dinners. They were on sale for $8.99 and gleaming through all those boxes was a cheese lasagna. With our vegetarian in the house this was a sight to behold! I grabbed one of them but along with our vegetarian we also have a "low carb" child. What to do for him ... that is when it hit me! Why not get chicken patties. I baked the lasagna and when I removed the foil at the end to brown it, put the chicken patties in to bake. They still had a little bit of cooking left to do once I pulled the lasagna out but it was just enough time to cool the lasagna to cut. Once cut I placed a piece on top of a chicken patty and quickly made our own version of Chicken Parmesan! I wouldn't fix it for company but it sure is nice for a quiet Monday night at home.

No Not Me Monday

I wanted to start out fresh today with a Not Me Monday post but I don't feel like it is appropriate since the creator of the Not Me Mondays, MckMamma, is in the hospital with her youngest son Stellan. You can read about him and his prayer needs at her blog My Charming Kids.

While I was there I found something that there is NO WAY I would leave for China without again. Let's face it ... I am NOT an expert squatty potty lady and this would have come in handy a few times! It is called the Go Girl and is sold in multi packs as well. Not sure I would take it to the mall but if I find myself on a plane to any squatty potty country, it will be in my carry on!

Lil Bit turns 5!

Lil Bit turned 5 today and it was such a good time! We had a Tinker of a party and good friends to boot. Our adventure started out with me waking up Lil Bit by singing her Happy Birthday. She stretched her arms out as she sat up and said "I'm 5!" It was sweet. I them handed her my hand to aid her out of bed and she said, "thank you, your majesty." She was in proper princess form all through Sunday school. Her teacher said she had the mannerisms down just right.

After church some dear friends joined us for a sweet little party. We made pretzel wands and opened Lil Bit's presents. The last one was the movie Tinker Bell. We ate our amazingly beautiful Tinker Bell cupcakes and cakes (for anyone who needs a cake made who lives close by us ... email me, this lady did an amazing job!) then sat down to watch our movie. Some of the kids started their craft early and we made foam door hangers for their bedrooms! All the little ones left with some goodies and leaf crowns. It was great fun.

Fell Away

I fell away from the blogging world the last couple weeks. It was a transition coming back home from the hospital with lil man but his surgery was a success and we should only be back in for one maybe two more procedures and all will be well. We are so pleased with his progress and with our doctors. They are amazing. Thank you for all your kind emails of concern. They were greatly appreciated. I added a new feature to my sidebar for Twitter. If any of you are interested in Twitter and would like to follow along, feel free to do so. We will do a follow up to toy order later today.

Look Who's 29!

I would tell you how old he really is ... but he might not appreciate that. I think that he likes to believe that he is just greying early :) Truly, my husband is amazing!!!! He is; my encourager, such a hard worker, fun to be around, a great shopper, loving to our kiddos, willing to change diapers, doesn't complain when I ask him to move furniture to one wall ... only to change my mind and ask for it to go back where it started, the one who insists I spend time with my friends and tells me I shouldn't feel guilty about how much it costs to get my facial or head massaging moisturizing treatments, loving to my parents and most of all ... in love with his Lord and Savior ... THAT is what makes him the most amazing husband in the world! 

I am so grateful to the Lord that He took hold of my husband's heart at a young age and that He has continued to draw him closer every year to Him. I am forever blessed that the Lord spoke to my husband in a practical way when he needed Him to for our adoptions. There is no more perfect a partner to spend my life with. No one could put up with my ranting and ravings, only to look at me like I hung the moon two second later. 

I love you honey and I pray that your birthday has been a blessing to you! Thank you for loving me the way you do. Thank you for our beautiful babies. Thank you for building our beautiful home. Thank you for trusting Him more than you.  

By the way ...

I was so bummed that I missed out on Not Me Monday! I had grandiose plans of keeping up with all my blogging while in the hospital with lil man but that has just no happened. He is going in for some repair surgery this morning and has had a fabulous visit to the hospital so far. I will try to post as I can from here but we should be home next week and back to blogging as usual. Take care!

Children's Toys

It seems like children's toys can multiply overnight and find their way onto the floor! Have you ever felt like you just cannot pick up one more toy or that you don't have the energy to turn a moment into a teaching time and have your toddlers pick up their own toys? Did you or do you have a creative way to tiddy up toys? What have you done to help make your home decorated less about toys and more about your family as a whole? If you want to send me photos of your toy makeovers, I would love to post them as an update to this posting.

We will revisit this Thoughtful Thursday next week with a follow up and then I will ask about our next Thoughtful Thursday subject. I am having fun figuring out a special way for us to all help each other in practical ways. If you have an idea, situation or want to help me out ... feel free to email me!

Birthday Cake

When trying to develop traditions for my kids, I never considered the cake I was serving at their birthday parties as part of that tradition. It was a few years ago when Ja deemed pineapple upside down cake his favorite cake. What made pineapple upside down cake his favorite? He had never mentioned it before his birthday party and yet I had made it for him.

I began to think about how I had been serving the same kind of cake for each child's birthday for a while and it had become a tradition. So, whether or not my child would have chosen the cake that I fix at their birthday to be their favorite it had just because I had ben serving that kind of cake for them for a while. It does not take elaborate planning to form a tradition for our children but food is an easy way to make a tradition and it will last with your children for ever.

I began to worry that I was going to mess up and not remember what I had been fixing at my kids birthdays and thought honestly that I wanted them to be able to have a voice in this now traditional birthday cake! I also took note that lil bit and lil man had not had time to form an opinion on this adventure and that I was getting the opportunity to start heir tradition fresh.

Jae of course stuck with what I had been making for years for him, a pineapple upside down cake. Joe has had the exact same cake made for him since he was two, it is my mom's version of a Texas sheet cake. Tae chose an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (or a marble cake in a pinch .... so glad she was flexible with that one!) For lil bit I started making dark chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips and whipped white frosting and lil man will start his tradition fresh this year and I have not chosen a cake for him yet. I would love to get a better idea of his likes and dislikes before deeming that one for him.

I purposefully left out Toe because I have been asked what kind of cake was at her party and I thought it was a story worth sharing. To chose for herself what our family calls a dump cake. Toe was introduced to this cake at a time in our lives that God was stretching us in ways we never dreamed possible. In early 2004 we learned that my father in laws cancer was terminal and that he had days to live. We packed up our children and left to be with him for the duration of his life. While there my mother in law suffered a heart attack and was placed in the hospital. We stayed with my father in law at home while visiting his mom. My parents and grandparents eventually kept our kids once my mother in law was released from the hospital and after being with my father in law for 19 days he passed away.

My mother in law still needed much care but the struggle of being away from home with my kids was too much, so I took them back home. The day after I got home I received a phone call that my grandmother, who had just been watching our children for us the week before, was in the hospital and if I wanted to see her again I would need to leave as son as possible. So, on a plane I went to be met by my sweet husband who took me to her side. I slept in her hospital room that night and we enjoyed a beautiful day the next. She was doing wonderful. We began to prepare for her care after the hospital and chose a nursing home to help her with her transition back home. The next morning with my grandfather, her children and three of her grandchildren by her side, she went to be with the Lord. The devastation was unreal as my grandmother had been the world to me. My mother was very young when I was born and my grandmother watched me while she finished school and started her career. For the few times that we lived with my grandparents I would sleep in my grandmas bed with her and she would tell me stories before I would go to sleep. She was usually the first person I talked to in the mornings and the one whose advise I would seek for everything. My world had just been turned upside down but I knew that God was good, I just had no idea how good! (I will share that story with you in another post ...)

So after my grandmother had passed away my children were brought to us and we spent a few more days as a family together at my grandparents home. While we were there my grandpas neighbor brought us over a cake. It was a dump cake. We all were so devastated about my grandmother but the love that came from this woman's food was real to us. She cared and showed her care through baking. Obviously Toe did not forget that love and care and dump cake became her favorite cake. It reminds her of her GG and how she used to call her, "my little french girl," it takes her back to a time when she was forced to grow up just a little quicker than she had hoped to but reminds her of what is so important, family.

I know that you just saw this photo a couple days ago but I thought it was worth repeating :)

So even though I do not feel comfortable sharing the recipe for the dump cake, I can remind you of how important it is to build memories with our kids. Even when we are in a difficult situation we have the opportunity to make a moment last forever. Even when a situation seems unpleasant, we have the opportunity to make it a cherished treasure. Love on your kids, build memories with them and leave a legacy.

Not Me Mondays

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. I however will not be sharing any embarrassing moments with you since I never do anything embarrassing!


Whew, has it already bee a week since last Monday? Please do not answer that :) So since we left our last Not Me Monday there is no way that I have done anything this week to write about ... right. That means that there is no way that I took time months ago to make my husband a Valentines card to give to him on Valentines day, then never gave it to him. There is no way that I did not give him anything for Valentines day. How horrible would that be of me!!!! There is no way that my husband had a gift waiting for me the second I woke up Valentine's morning. There is also no way, that since it was still dark and I was planning on getting back in bed, that I turned to him and said, "did you want me to open that now or can I wait?" How ungrateful could I be, or sleep deprived ... I am not sure which one!

Since none of that happened there is also no way that all week long I watched my sweet Toe cry about the fact that her birthday was coming and that it was just going to be another day since she had decided to give up a party and gift to pay off her cell phone bill that she owed us. There is no way I just watched and said how sorry I was about that knowing all along that she was having a surprise party ... not me. I would never let my child suffer like that.

There is also no way that I as I was making her birthday cake that I poured the first layer in and turned to my friend helping me and said, "this is really thick!" Two minute later I was not reading the recipe for the next layer and as I went to measure out the water my friend did not say, "how much water did the last layer call for?" I did not shake my head at her, scrape the mix out of the pan and put it back into the mixing bowl only to add the water required! There is no way that I would mess up when baking since it is as easy as following the directions!

Wordless Weekends

Guess who turned 15 today????

 

How to Resolve Conflict

Have you had trouble resolving conflict with someone in your life?

I have been praying for a friend who has been having trouble with this. She was very close to a friend and hurt this friend inadvertently and now this friend will not speak to her. What took place should not have cause this person to quite speaking to my friend but it has made it hard for her to resolve the situation. Have you been in a similar situation? What did you do? Can you pray for this friend and see if you have some advice for her? Leave your thoughts in a comment or email then to me have me post them to keep your identity confidential. 

Pasta

I love pasta. It is my downfall. I may always pick Chinese to go out to eat but I would choose Italian every time to cook at home. My family enjoys pasta as well, but not quite as much as I do. The one dish that they do all enjoy is baked ravioli. Now, I do not know how it is done in restaurants but at our house it is a very easy meal to fix. I just boil frozen ravioli that I bought at the store and then place in a single layer of a baking dish and sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan. I place it in the oven for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees until the cheese is golden brown and the ravioli begin to crisp up. While they are baking I heat some marinara and alfredo sauces. Once the ravioli are done I dish them into individual plates then top them with half of each sauce. It is great served with a salad or broccoli! I am not sure what baking the ravioli does to make my family love it, but I have tried to serve regular ravioli in the past and it has never really been a hit like this is! Enjoy :)

Not Me Mondays

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. I however will not be sharing any embarrassing moments with you since I never do anything embarrassing!

Now that we have spent a week with lil man at preschool there is no way that I felt the need to compensate for that in the afternoons with lil bit and proceed to take her out for ice cream, Starbucks and shopping. That would be crazy and I would never indulge a child like that!

Speaking of indulging a child, there is also no way that Tae asked me Friday if she could go to her friend's house and I said no. I always let my kids do what they want especially when I do not have a good reason why they can't. There is also no way that later that evening when she was chatting with her friends who were allowed to go, that I completely forgot that she had asked earlier and rubbed salt in her wound by saying, "why didn't you want to go over to hang out?" I am not that crazy and I did not totally forget her asking and me saying no for no reason. I could never forget something like that! So since I didn't do any of that there would have been no reason for me to try and over compensate the following night and allow her to have two friends over to spend the night and give them hot chocolate way too late considering we had church the next morning. I would never!

Just for the record, there is no way that I am allowing Joe to play Guitar Hero in the middle of a Monday afternoon just because his school work is done and I am too tired to come up with something amazingly educational or productive for him to do. Oh and lil man is not eating his lunch in the family room while watching Joe play Guitar Hero either! And that judge this morning said we had proven ourselves fit parents to adopt ;)

Oh, one more thing ... there is no way I was too lazy to even get off the couch to take those two photos since I always get enough sleep and would never let a little thing like a readoption and a 9:00 am court date keep me up until 2:00 am and get me up at 6:00 am to get everyone out the door on time! 

A Week Without Words ...

I just could not find the words to write this week. It was a hard week for me. I started a post every day and could never find a way to finish it. I was struggling not only with time but the words I wanted to write. Have you ever had those weeks???

I love being able to blog and I know that to keep those who follow your blog reading that you have to write ... so for my absence I apologize. There was MUCH accomplished this week though and even though I tend to not write about too much personal stuff in this blog I would love to share some good news with all of you. 

We were able to complete our readoption process of lil bit and lil man today! Now the paperwork did have me a bit preoccupied as we did not hire an attorney but really by the time we finished, it was SO easy! So, any of my friends out there who have adopted internationally and would like to readopt in the states I can send you to some great resources!

Secondly, I started a new study this last week. It really is just a book but a couple friends of mine and I are reading it together and making a study of it. It is Tom Davis' book, Red Letters. It has been so thought provoking and I am enjoying every minute of it! I have teased my friend J that she can only read one chapter a week like the rest of us ... she loves to read and could devour the entire book in one evening :)

So, forgive the week without posts and enjoy those to come! Many blessings ...

Not Me Mondays

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. I however will not be sharing any embarrassing moments with you since I never do anything embarrassing!

There is no way this week that I enrolled little man in a public preschool program, after all I am a perfect homeschooling mom who can do it all herself and does not need the help of others. There is also no way way that after not taking little man to this said preschool that I took photos and was all excited for him. Now since I did not do any of that, there is no way that on Friday I forgot that I needed to pick up little man from this preschool and franticly sent Jae to go grab him and then had to answer a phone call from the teacher wondering if he was to take the bus. I would NEVER forget to grab my precious youngest child and then send my oldest to do the dirty work of picking him up! Not me!

There is no way that I would make this entire Not Me post about little man since there is no way I could do so many embarrassing things with just one child in one week. So there is also no way that I decided it was better to change little man standing up in his stroller on the side of the street at the Chinese New Year celebration in the city instead of walking the two blocks up hill to the car and change him the proper way. There is no way I would do this while asking To to hold up his coat so less people could see him. You see ... I told you I am a totally with it mom since I would never have done any of these things :)

Wordless Weekends

Homework

I was recently praying for a mom who has been struggling with her teenage son turning in his homework at school. This child has been given ample warnings and every opportunity to change his behavior. Mom and dad have been helping to ensure that the work is done and even checking to make sure that the work is in the backpack and still he will forget to turn in his work. 

This is a good kid! He is home much of the time, attends his youth group, complies (as much to be expected from a teenage child) with household rules and is very polite. He is a good kid but this is a situation that must change. He is not in a normal public school setting and can be removed from his classes if he does not get his grades up. The school would be patient if he was struggling with the work but his work is fine, it is just the missing assignments that have pulled his grade down. He understands the consequences and is very sorry for his behavior but it is not enough to bring a change in this repeated behavior.

What would you do? Have you been in this situation before? What do you think might help this child to turn in his homework? Would you pray about this real mom and her real situation. If you are comfortable, write a comment of what you have done in this situation or what God reveals to you through prayer. If you would rather remain anonymous, send me an email and I will write your reply for you! Thanks for joining in on Thoughtful Thursdays.

Menu Planning

I mentioned in a previous post about planning menus with my kids and was asked some questions about how I do that and why. Menu planning was not something taught to me or that I grew up with. I recognized in our family the same struggle I saw as a kid; "what's for dinner ... I don't know ... that's not thawed ... let's go out ... just call for pizza." Those moments in the evening where food becomes a "big deal" in our homes can break down an evening for our family. When people are hungry they do not make the best choices and are irritable with others as well. Not having a plan for dinner continuously can cause real heartache for our families when it is not necessary.

When I plan our menu I plan for two weeks. I only plan for dinners. I buy various lunch and breakfast items for my older kids and at this point in their lives, let them choose for themselves. The younger ones are at home for lunch time, so we tend to eat leftovers, sandwiches or soup. Planning for dinners only helps me to not be so ridged about the food in our home but gives us a plan for the evenings. I also plan a bit of a theme for a given night, for example:

Sunday- "home cooking"
Monday- pizza
Tuesday- Mexican
Wednesday- Chinese
Thursday- Italian
Friday- simple
Saturday- hearty soup or salad

These are not set in stone and I have learned to be flexible with my planning. I always have a few quick meals on hand. Spaghetti noodles, sauce and some frozen veggies ... tuna, noodles, cream of mushroom soup and frozen peas ... Viola frozen skillet meals with extra frozen broccoli ... frozen pot stickers, rice and frozen stir fry veggies ... frozen burritos, Mexican stewed tomatoes and rice. All of those meals can be made up in a short amount of time. They are sometimes a part of my menu for that week but may have to be switched due to forgetting the meat in the freezer or getting home from something too late to cook what I had planned. I build my shopping list from the menu planned, standard breakfast and lunch items, then add in the items mentioned above if they are missing from our pantry or freezer.

I also try to plan our menu switching between chicken, fish, vegetarian, and sometimes beef or pork. We rarely eat beef and pork. I try to limit it to once every other week and only one or the other. I also take into account what our activities for the day are before I plan a menu item. If I am going to be out all day I will likely plan a crock pot meal for that day so dinner will be done when I get home. If I am going to be home all day, I like to take advantage of that time to prepare a meal that we may not always get to have just because of the prep time involved.

On Mondays we sometimes go bowling because it is $0.25 a person at our local lane! We get a pizza from there and spend the evening having a great time. On Mondays that we don't bowl we mix up our pizza routine. We will make little pizzas on English muffins, french bread, store bought pizza crust or homemade. It is a fun time and pizza toppings go a LONG way! I buy the huge bags of shredded mozzarella and parmesan at Costco and freeze it in quart size bags. It is just about the right amount for an evening.

So here is a sample menu from our home:

Sunday- Roast chicken with green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy and Rhodes rolls
Monday- English muffin pizzas
Tuesday- Shrimp fajitas
Wednesday- Chinese noodles with cabbage, carrots and onions
Thursday- Penne pasta with garlic parmesan sauce, asparagus and grilled chicken breast
Friday- Boca burgers with cheese on whole wheat dinner rolls, french fries and fruit
Saturday- Homemade chicken noodle soup with Reames frozen noodles

I mentioned before that I like to let my kids get involved. Even though the pick things that I would normally cook, they feel like the night that I cook it, I was ding it just for them. They also tend to be more likely to offer their help to me on that night in the kitchen. It becomes a special time and I know that too many of those are about to flee before my eyes.

So enjoy your evenings with your families. Take a bit of stress off yourself and them by knowing what's for dinner. Then keep a few backup plans just incase your plan doesn't pan out. Most of all ... don't give up! Starting to eat from a menu takes time and practice. If it does not work out for a few weeks just keep trying. You will soon grow to enjoy and rely on your new plan!

Patience

Have you ever felt like you couldn't muster up another grain of patience in a given day? It has been one of those weeks for me. Just when I think that I may have arrived at a point where I am doing okay in a given area of my life, I learn that is not quite the case. 

I never wanted to be one of those mom's whose lost their temper with their kids at the store. I also took note of those mom's who just checked out when there kids threw a fit at the store and thought, "take care of your kid already." Note to self, I don't want to be one of those mom's either. I suppose I wanted to be the mom with the kids who sat quietly in the cart and behaved perfectly, all the time. 

The truth is after six children I have had all those experiences and more at the store. I accomplished those "perfect" moments with a lot of hard work and consistency.  I made little rules to follow with my kids and it did pay off. I gave myself the rules to take the focus off my children's behavior. I verbally prepared my children for the store before entering. I told them what our goal was and what behavior I expected from them. I also reminded them of the rules: Mom cannot buy you anything, Mom has to have you holding onto the cart or sitting in your seat at all times. Mom cannot let you switch seats or hold onto any items in the store. 

As much as the preparation and rules helped to make the majority of our shopping trips a success, nothing seemed to prepare me for the times when it did not work. I had days that I could barely get through being awake, let alone going through the store with my kids. There were times when I barely had enough money to get what I needed at the store and not only had to complete my shopping list but had to calculate the cost along the way. Mind you I NEEDED the items I was going for or I probably would have never gone. I probably did need to have more patience with my kids on those days but I didn't. 

There were other times when my husband was deployed and I had been trapped at home with my kids just too long. I needed to get out and with no one to entrust my kids to I would go to the store. My kids would be tired and irritable because they were reflecting just how I was feeling! I would not even acknowledge their behavior. I probably did need to "take care of my kids" but it was what I felt I needed to do just to get through that particular day. 

Those times were unbearable but not just because I was uncomfortable with my children's behavior but because other people made me even more uncomfortable. I probably should not have cared how other people felt about my children's behavior, but I did. I probably could have excused how they were behaving to these people, but they did not give me an opportunity. Maybe I should have taken more parenting classes, maybe I "made my bed" having four children within five years of one another but what is it that made these people so impatient with my children and myself? What made me so impatient when I was on the other end of this scenario? Who was I to judge this person? I may believe that I could do better in a situation but I know quiet certainly that I am not perfect.

I think in order to be patient with other people in situations like this; we have to be willing to step down off our pedestal, high horse or what ever else you want to call it. I learned this lesson best when it was presented to me as dying to ones self. When we make our thoughts and opinions more important than that of someone else, we loose the opportunity to minister to that person. In place of ministering to them, we hurt them in ways that we may not even imagine. What I should have done when I saw moms struggling with their little ones, was give them a sincere loving smile or a sympathetic nod. I should have immediately lifted them up in prayer and considered them later in my quiet time with the Lord as well. 

A mom in a grocery store is just an example of a time when we can have patience and lift another person's needs above our own. We can all come up with various examples. When we are in those situations I think that we can ask ourselves one practical question to help us respond, "what if this person comes to visit our church this week and I am the one who greets them?" It is easy to say that we are to be Christ like in our behavior, I think it is another to be held accountable for it. It is still something that I struggle with but the more I practice patience with those around me, the more natural it becomes. 

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

Lil bit came running out from my room this morning and quickly came back to get me screaming, "come see!!! come see!!!!" I thought, "hum, it must have snowed again." I could hear her saying, "so pretty, so pretty" and when I emerged from the room ... she way pointing (well she doesn't point since I have taught her that is rude ... she was more ... presenting) the Chinese New Year decorations I had put up the evening before. She said, "see how pretty ... oh daddy ... thank you ... thank you!"

Back it up ... yes ... she thanked her father for all the decorations. Since after all there is nothing that my husband loves more than to spend his evenings decorating up our house :) Mind you he wasn't even home when she found the decorations since he was already gone to work but I was not going to burst her bubble. I will just make sure that he is the one who stays up to do it next time!

Actually, it was a lot of fun putting up decorations with the older kids the night before. Ja helped me find just the right spots for all the wall decorations while Ta hung up all the celieng decorations. Last year I spent the Lantern Festival (the end of Chinese New Year) in China bringing lil man home. It was a very special time. I was also excited to be in China at that tim so I could get all those great deals on Chinese New Year decorations since it was just getting over. NOT! The Chinese do not hold on to stuff like that throughout the New Year and I could not find ANY decorations ANYWHERE! I am looking forward to get a few new ones this year but the holiday got away from me and I have not went out looking yet. Today will be an adventure :)  So Gung Hay Fat Choy!! This Cantonese greeting means, "May you be prosperous." We can all use a bit of that this year.

Not Me Mondays

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. I however will not be sharing any embarrassing moments with you since I never do anything embarrassing!

I did not pull lil bit's brown leg warmers out of the dirty clothes hamper to wear one day this last week even though she had just worn them the day before. I did not do this since there were three clean pair in the drawer beside me and furthermore I did not try to rationalize with myself that there was no reason she couldn't wear them again that day since no one had seen her the day before. This wouldn't do this since we were not going anywhere that day and no one was coming over, so it did not even matter that she wore the brown leg warmers vs the purple ones that matched okay but not quite as perfect.

There is absolutely no way that when lil bit had an accident in her pants this week and when I told her she is not supposed to poop in her pants, she's supposed to poop in the toilet, that she said to me, "I have to mom, it's written in my story." There is no way that she said this because this would mean that she had seen Super Why WAY too many times and there is no way that I understood what she was referring to because I would never watch those kid shows myself!

There is also no way that when walking out the door to go on a date with my husband that I whimpered as he walked towards his classic Camero vs my SUV. It had nothing to do with me not wanting to crawl down on the floor to sit in a car and that I would not be as comfortable as I would be in my car. I am still FAR too cool to care about comfort over coolness! (By the way, he won :)